The ERN Cryo-EM Federated Instrument Pilot Project: Phase 1

The Ecosystem for Research Networking (ERN) CryoEM Remote Instrument Pilot Project was launched in response to feedback and survey data collected from hundreds of participants of the ERN series of NSF (OAC-2018927) funded community outreach events revealing that Structural Biology instrument driven science is being forced to transition from self-contained islands to federated wide-area internet accessible instruments. Its goal is to facilitate multi-institutional collaboration at the interface of computing and electron microscopy through the implementation of the ERN Federated OpenCI Lab’s Instrument CI Cloudlet design. The conclusion will be a web-based portal leveraging federated access to the instrument, workflows utilizing edge computing in conjunction with cloud computing and real-time monitoring for experimental parameter adjustments and decisions. The intention is to foster team science and scientific innovation, with emphasis on under-represented and under-resourced institutions, through the democratization of these scientific instruments. This paper discusses the latest Phase 1 deployment efforts